


Counting Sunflowers

by EntameWitchLulu



Series: Femslash February 2021 [16]
Category: Senki Zesshou Symphogear
Genre: F/F, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 09:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30053505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EntameWitchLulu/pseuds/EntameWitchLulu
Summary: There is plenty of things to mourn, but there are plenty of reasons to keep living as well.
Relationships: Maria Cadenzavna Eve/Kazanari Tsubasa
Series: Femslash February 2021 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2139543
Kudos: 20





	Counting Sunflowers

The rhythmic  _ smack smack smack _ of Maria’s fists against the pads rang across the training room. Tsubasa, who had initially planned on grabbing a training sword and doing a few kata, found herself instead standing at the railing, watching. Maria fought with a practiced precision, matching the speed of the autonomous targets with ease. The way she moved was almost like a dance, and Tsubasa could nearly imagine her going through such a performance on stage. Sure enough, she could hear the faintest of humming. Maria must be humming to herself, keeping herself on beat. It was a practice Tsubasa did herself, humming the lyrics to one of her most recent songs as she worked on kata — it maintained her rhythm, and helped with the lung capacity she needed to sing and fight at the same time in battle. And, well, it was just second nature, now. It didn’t feel right to strike without a song joining it.

Maria swung around to strike a target that spun near her head, and as she did, her back turned to face Tsubasa. The muscles in her back rippled as she struck again, the solid, cathartic sound of fist against pad reverberating through Tsubasa as though it were her who had struck. Tsubasa’s mouth was suddenly very dry, tracing the lines of Maria’s biceps as they pulsed and flexed with each of her hits. She dropped down to spin a sweeping kick at a target that had ducked low, and as she spun back to her feet, her eyes caught on Tsubasa watching her.

Maria raised both her eyebrows, a smile quirking at her lips. Chest heaving with her breaths, she tapped a button on the wrist bracer she wore, and the hovering karate targets all stilled, gathering up to hover off to the side.

“Are you just going to watch?” Maria called, throwing her ponytail over her shoulder. “Or would you like to join me?”

Tsubasa couldn’t help but smirk back at her — Maria’s grin was hard for her to resist.

“Are you sure you want me down there?” she asked, heading down the stairs. “I might hurt you.”

“Oh, please,” Maria said. “Just put up that ridiculous hair of yours before you jump in, I don’t want it getting in my face.”

Tsubasa rolled her eyes, but she took out her mini pigtail and used the tie to pull her hair back. She paused near the selection of training weapons, hand hovering over one of the padded swords.

“Don’t patronize me, Tsubasa,” Maria called, and Tsubasa smile.

She grabbed one of the bamboo swords, and headed over to the ring. She hopped the cords and slid into a stance. Maria lowered her own stance, lifting up both fists. She was still smiling, but her eyes had hardened in readiness. Tsubasa gripped her sword a bit harder.

For a moment, they only stared each other down, looking for openings that weren’t there, feeling each other out.

Tsubasa moved first. She darted forward, sword pointed straight forward into a thrust. Maria ducked to the side and caught the sword along the flat of her arm. She slid down the sword with her free fist aimed for Tsubasa’s jaw. Tsubasa danced around it, swinging herself to the side by using her sword to push off of Maria. As Maria followed through, Tsubasa made a swipe for the back of her legs. Maria caught on too quick. She used the momentum of her forward swing to throw herself into a somersault, rolling forward and out of reach of the strike.

Tsubasa swung around and slid into a new stance, taking advantage of the moments that Maria had to take to roll back to her feet and swing back to face her. This time Maria took the offensive. She drew her fists up close to her face and bolted forward. Tsubasa opted for a low swing at Maria’s stomach, but Maria didn’t block. She kept her fists up and took the hit right against her abs, grunting but otherwise not flinching. Her elbow snapped up for the side of Tsubasa’s head once she was in close. Tsubasa ducked just in time, dropping one hand from her sword to punch out with the heel of her palm. She caught Maria right under the lungs, and Maria gusted out a breath. Tsubasa flipped her sword up and swung hard.

But Maria was fast. She used Tsubasa’s strike to give her the momentum to dance backwards to catch her breath, lifting her fists again. She was light on her feet, bouncing slightly up and down, shuffling back and forth, making it harder to see which direction she might go.

Her shoulders heaved, though, and her face was flushed. Who knew how long she’d been training before now? And Tsubasa was embarrassed to admit that she was already out of breath. Keeping pace with Maria took one hundred and twenty percent of her energy.

She let her sword drift toward the ground, and Maria, sensing the stalemate, stopped bouncing. She let her arms fall to her sides.

“You really make me work for it, don’t you?” Maria said. She walked over to where she’d thrown a towel over the rope boundaries, and wiped her face. Sweat shone over her arms and her back, nearly every muscle visible under her sports crop top. Tsubasa really  _ tried _ not to stare, but it was hard.

Maria made an annoyed sound when Tsubasa slid her arms around her from behind, but she didn’t draw away.

“We are both way too sweaty for this,” she said.

“You know I can’t help it,” Tsubasa said, pressing her lips to Maria’s shoulder blades.

She enjoyed the little spluttering sound that Maria made, her own cheeks burning a bit. But she’d decided that she wasn’t going to be shy anymore, hadn’t she?

“You want to take a break?” Maria said. “Even though you only just started.”

“I think I could go for one,” Tsubasa said. “Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t care. Somewhere I can cool off.”

Tsubasa grinned, kissing her shoulder again.

“I take that to mean, not the bedroom.”

Maria smacked Tsubasa in the face with her towel, and Tsubasa laughed, batting it back. 

They ended up just heading out the back door, and out into the crisp, clear spring afternoon.

A gentle breeze wafted across the wide open field. S.O.N.G.’s new training facility was secluded enough that no one would ask too many questions if flying, singing girls in mech suits went a little crazy doing training formations in the woods. Something about Genjuro being tired of them breaking everything in the submarine every time they used the holo program, so they needed their own space. Tsubasa wasn’t complaining. Just outside the main training room, a wide open expanse of green grass glimmering up to the edge of the forest. Flowers bobbed in the breeze, and the air was so cool and clear. It was quiet, too. No cars, no pounding stereos. Tsubasa loved singing, but she could appreciate the quiet, too.

She glanced over at Maria. Maria had closed her eyes, and the wind was picking at loose strands that had escaped her ponytail. Some were still stuck to her skin, though, and Tsubasa reached over to brush them loose, lifting her hand to Maria’s ponytail itself to gently card her fingers through it.

“Stop it. I’m all gross,” Maria said, batting her hand lightly away.

“You’re never gross,” Tsubasa said.

Maria laughed. The breeze flitted between them, and it felt good on Tsubasa’s sweaty skin. She’d get too cold in a moment, but right now, it was just perfect.

“Look,” Maria said, pointing. “The sunflowers are growing.”

Tsubasa followed her finger. Up on the crest of the little hill, bright spots of yellow bobbed in the breeze, their huge blossoms pointed up towards the sky.

Maria slid her hand into Tsubasa’s, and tugged her up the hill. Tsubasa went without protest, mostly enjoying the feeling of Maria’s fingers twined into hers. Despite the ache in her legs, the hill wasn’t too steep, and the breeze was nicer up here. The sunflowers bobbed gently, their petals shimmering.

“They’re coming in so nicely,” Maria said, cupping one with her free hand. “I told you they’d grow.”

“I didn’t say they wouldn’t,” Tsubasa protested.

“No, but you implied that I would be a poor gardener.”

“I  _ only _ said since sunflowers didn’t grow here normally, they  _ might _ not grow.”

Maria raised both eyebrows at her, smirking, and Tsubasa shoved her with her hip.

“But you’re right,” Tsubasa said. “They’re coming in very well. I think it was a good idea, to try growing them.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

Maria’s smile grew a little sad as she looked at them, though. Tsubasa felt her own smile grow sadder. She counted the sunflowers in her mind, but rather than numbers, she counted them with names.  _ Kanade. Serena. Nastassja Sergeyevna Tolstaya. _ The list continued on. A sunflower for each of those they’d lost. And some for those whose names they’d never known, lost senselessly in the crossfire. 

“I’m glad we chose sunflowers instead of lilies,” Maria murmured. “They...they don’t hurt quite as much. They feel....”

“More peaceful,” Tsubasa finished when Maria trailed off for long seconds. “More...full of life. As though they haven’t left us.”

Maria nodded. Her hand had begun to shake ever so slightly, and Tsubasa gripped it tightly. There were words that they would have for each other, some nights when it grew too much to handle. When Maria remembered the children whose only crime had been being near the warehouse at the wrong time. When Tsubasa remembered the children screaming as they tried to flee the stadium. When they remembered everyone they hadn’t been able to save, when they would reassure each other that there was nothing more they could have done, that they deserved to live on, that they had done the best they could in the moments they had been in the with things they’d known then.

But here in the sunlight, surrounded by the bobbing yellow blossoms, was not the time for those words. It was only a time to breathe. So Tsubasa drew Maria’s fingers to her lips and kissed them gently. She didn’t say a word when Maria’s shoulder shook, when the lump began to grow in her own throat. She only kissed her lips gently, held her hand gentler, ran her fingers down the curve of her spine and felt Maria’s hand slid through her hair as they kissed the pain away. The sunflowers bobbed against their knees, and they kissed until, for now, at least, the breeze blew the pain away. 

For now, this moment, they were alive. They were here. And it was all right for them to be alive.


End file.
